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Personal proper names are part of a community's language inventory. To a large extent, they verbalise gender stereotypes, expectations and norms, power relations, political circumstances, and how minorities are treated. In my paper I analyse the current socioonomastic representation of gender-neutral names in the context of naming practices in the Czech Republic. More specifically, I examine what factors might explain the decreased use of these names, which, paradoxically, differ from other names in that they have an extended functionality. From a linguistic and legal perspective I inquire into how Czech naming practices stigmatise the sexual otherness of non-binary people and trans people in Czech society. In the conclusion I set out the conditions that must be met for gender-neutral names to be freely available to the entire population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main topic of the paper is the possibilities of higher education in sign language in the Czech Republic, Australia, and New Zealand. The primary focus is on introducing all the universities and the courses offered, with an emphasis also on presenting the most significant differences in the organisation of teaching. In the introduction, important aspects influencing the shape of tertiary education in the respective countries are mentioned, including the historical development of deaf education, the emergence and development of sign languages and national legislation, deaf education today, and the education systems of the Czech Republic, Australia, and New Zealand. The text focuses mainly on the differences in the national qualification frameworks, credit systems, university offerings, and the organisation of teaching in different disciplines. None of the fields of study that are analysed omits the interpretation of linguistic, cultural, or historical characteristics of sign languages, and theoretical teaching is complemented by work experience in various institutions and educational establishments. On the basis of these facts, it can be concluded that, despite the differences in the organisation of the studies, the disciplines in focus are comparable in content and scope. Finally, the concept of peer learning support, which is not yet implemented at Czech universities, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of pupils with special needs into the mainstream school system is one of the key developments in the Czech school system. However, the evident unpreparedness of teachers for this situation represents a fundamental threat to the realisation of this aim. It is especially apparent in certain subjects where no specific field support for the realisation of inclusion in ordinary school reality exists. Czech language instruction is no exception in this respect. The paper analyses teachers’ needs in connection with teaching pupils with special educational needs, with special respect to the didactic reconstruction of content. It appears that in the case of traditional language teaching it is even more difficult as there is a need not only to alter the way content is didactically transformed, but also for the selection of content as such. The text demonstrates that these needs cannot be saturated by educational interventions that are developed in isolation in the field of special education, but must be developed directly in the field of the didactics of the Czech language. This is the only way of securing the expert adequacy of these interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the relationship between language and culture has recently found an interesting source of inspiration in the theoretical-methodological basis of cognitive linguistics and ethnolinguistics. The paper draws on this resource, especially on the findings of J. Bartmiński's Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin and the theory of culturally key words by Anna Wierzbicka, and following the previous ethnolinguistic research of Czech Christmas, it focuses on the image of the Christmas giver Ježíšek in contemporary Czech (private and public) discourse. This image has been reconstructed based on the analysis of language data and culturally significant texts dealing with the Ježíšek topic, and also based on a survey conducted among Czechs on social networks. The objective of the analysis is to contribute to the formulation of the so-called cognitive definition connected to the Ježíšek conceptualization, and to identify some of its aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a contribution to the field of translation studies focusing on translation history. It deals with the techniques and methods used in German-Czech translations at the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation. The main subject of the paper is an original analysis of three selected German texts form the 16th and early 17th century {Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von Dill Ulenspiegel; Historia von Doktor Johann Fausten; Martin Luther, Eine Heerpredigt wider den Türeken) and their first translations into Czech. The aim of the analysis is to revise and advance the current understanding of translations of the period and to provide an overview of the main problems connected with investigation of old prints. The results based on the analysis show that the translation techniques and methods used in the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation were very diverse and often mutually contradictory, there was usually no consistent translation strategy used by the translators and probably also no universal translation norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Czech studies as a study programme at the Beijing Foreign Studies University will celebrate the 60th anniversary. In 1952 Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of China signed an agreement about the cultural cooperation, which significantly supported Czech studies in China. The beginning of Czech classes took place in the Chinese capital city Beijing at the Faculty of the Russian language, the Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1954 according to the decision of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The first lecturer of the Czech language was the sinologist Dana Štovícková. The lectorate successively employed two lecturers but at the end of 1950s, the international political situation got worse and for good reasons, Czechoslovakia was afraid of the future of the lectorate. Despite the insufficient financial and administrative background, teachers in cooperation with students published the first Czech-Chinese dictionary. During the first decade of the intensive cultural change between both states, a wide range of Chinese lecturers in Czech studies graduated, for instance Zhou Zhiyao, Zhu Weihua or He Lei. This paper brings information about the initial phase of the lectorate of the Czech language in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining which circumstances, influences and phenomena enter into the gender of a text, the paper considers the conditions of its translatability. In the first part, examples of English -Czech translations of non -literary and literary texts are chosen for discussion. It is argued that even texts with a feminist potential, i.e. texts in whose themes and forms gender issues are highlighted as an apparent result of the author’s political intention or imaginative work, can lose this potential in the process of being translated into Czech. This is the case in the work of translators who are blind to gender manifestations in the text, and/or who suppress the gender of the translated text in accord with the cultural, textual, and language norms of the target (Czech) culture. In contrast with the quite frequent “gender blindness” of Czech translators, the article in its second part discusses the provocative concepts and approaches of Feminist Translation – a critical discourse and translation practice with its roots in the 1970s Québec. Though a few Czech translations are close to Feminist Translation, the main benefit of introducing it into the Czech milieu is to make the gender of a text an issue, and to work for its acknowledgement through small concrete steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]